Graphic: Kelleher shares photo of nasty cut

The bantamweight contender is sporting a hole in the middle of his forehead. A hole.

You knew it was coming. As the resident gore expert around here, it is my job to bring you the worst of the worst in mixed martial arts injuries, so I am presenting you with the most recent one courtesy of UFC bantamweight Brian “Boom” Kelleher.

Kelleher competed at UFC 258 last Saturday against Ricky Simón and lost by way of unanimous decision after 15 minutes. Simón controlled the fight with relentless pressure and wrestling, which saw Kelleher on his back defending submission attempts for most of their shared time in the Octagon.

Kelleher may have been busy dealing with Simón and his constant attacks, but that was not the only thing he had to worry about. Early in the fight, Simón landed an elbow from guard during an exchange on the ground and opened up a brutal cut right in the center of Kelleher’s forehead.

After being sliced open, Kelleher was pushed up against the fence while being squeezed by Simón and blood started pouring out of the fresh wound. As bad as it looked on the broadcast, the severity of the injury was not truly understood until a few days after the fight.

Kelleher took to Twitter on Tuesday evening to share a photo of himself in the process of getting stitched up and it is not a pretty sight to behold. To be as blunt and dramatic as possible, it appears as though we are looking directly into Kelleher’s brain through this quarter-sized hole in his head.

(Warning: Graphic photo ahead. Proceed with caution.)

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“Scar too deep for a bandaid solution,” wrote Kelleher alongside the photo.

A bandaid is definitely not covering that up. Kelleher did not share how many stitches he needed to close the hole, but we imagine it must have been quite a few.

The reaction from fans was mixed, with some of them gagging at the sight and others posting their own photos of what the cut reminded them off. A personal favorite came from this Twitter user, who photoshopped a newborn Xenomorph from the horror movie Alien bursting out of Kelleher’s forehead like the famed chestburster scene. 10/10 for creativity.

There is no timetable as far as his return goes, but hopefully Kelleher does not need a lot of time away and we see him back sooner than later.